Before realizing he actually gets airsick.
Sky Pirates Of Valendor free issue
Jolly Roger Studios (2013)
“An Easy Prize”
CREATOR/WRITER: Everett Soares
PENCILER: Brian Brinlee
INKER: Michael W. Kellar
TONES: Jet Amago
LETTERER: Steve Kuster
EDITOR: Amy Haley
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Kids are not as aware of scientific principles or tropes we adults have seen a few thousand times, so they are more accepting. They also bore easy, are aware enough to know when they’re being talked down to, and the “rule of cool” only goes so far before it gets boring or rediculous. Lazy writers who don’t care about kids and just need a paycheck and a resume like to pretend writing for kids is easy, and that’s why too many kids productions are low-budget garbage or all flash and no substance.
After posting a video last week about a questioned view that it was similar to Hamlet (the conclusion being it wasn’t) and the recent passing of one of its main stars (despite being in maybe a third of the film tops), I figured now was as good a time as any to get this banked review out to the world…leaving one left as of this writing.
The original animated version of The Lion King is superior to the “photorealistic” remake, and I could tell you that before watching either. While Michael Eisner tried to pump this “didn’t need to be a franchise” for as much cash as he could squeeze out of it, Bob Iger is possibly worse, by trying to remake the franchise in his “animation sucks even though that’s what Disney was founded on” mentality. If it isn’t live-action it’s trying to fool you into thinking it’s live action. However, this is one of the big movies of the “Disney Renaissance”, when the company finally moved past the loss of Walt Disney and got back to making his dream come true of entertaining audiences with animation and theme parks…and making a lot of money in the process.
I never really got to see this movie until recently, or any of the sequels except for the CBS Saturday morning Timon & Pumbaa series and the Disney Junior kids series The Lion Guard, a show that seemed to be reworked so it could be forced into the Lion King story. It was okay. It wasn’t the original, though, so it’s nice that I finally got to see it. Was it worth it? Does it live up to the hype?
RELEASE DATE: 1994
RELEASED BY: Walt Disney Pictures & Walt Disney Animation Studios
RUNTIME: 1 hour 28 minutes
RATING: G (who says G is a death note for movies?)
VIEWING SOURCE FOR THIS REVIEW: Freeform
STARRING: Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nathan Lane, and Ernie Sabella
SCREENWRITERS: Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton (plus a long list added to “story by”)
DIRECTOR: Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
BOX OFFICE: $424,979,720 domestic, $979,046,652 worldwide gross, according to IMDB
ESTIMATED BUDGET: $45,000,000 according to IMDB
Just for fun I looked up the remake’s data. With a budget of $260,000,000, way more than the hand-drawn movie, The 2019 demake made $543,638,043 domestic and $1,662,020,819 gross. Admittedly more, but at the same time I don’t know if IMDB counts for current monetary worth, and there isn’t as much praise for the version that makes the animals look like animals instead of animated beings. I’m not hearing anybody waiting for Mufasa to come out. I could probably drum up more interest in Simba’s Pride than what’s coming.
“You’re actually shorter than I was expecting.”
Knuckles The Echidna #25
Archie Comic Publications (June, 1999)
“Childhood’s End”
WRITER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Mark Bernardo
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
one swear
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I love this show, by the way. It’s fun, the tomboy is allowed to be a straight girl (unlike every current tomboy on American TV), the characters are fantastic, everything makes sense, and he didn’t mention the minor characters, who are also a joy…especially Tomo’s dad and Misuzu’s mom. I want another season of this show but I don’t know what they’d do with it without weakening the series as a whole. Also, I need to read the manga now.
January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024
Hollywood has lost another cinema treasure. Word came last night that James Earl Jones has passed away at 93 years old. My condolences to his family and friends.
Jones had an amazing career in theater, movies, and television. Many of those roles were forgotten to time. I didn’t know he appeared on two different soap operas. He’s mostly known for Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, Mufasa in the good version of The Lion King, and maybe Thulsa Doom in the first Conan The Barbarian movie. Those are great roles, but he’s done so many stories, from pushing a man to turn his cornfield into a baseball park to a lemming on Sesame Street (unless IMDB is lying about that last one), Jones has done many movies and shows both physically and in voice roles. Everybody has their favorites.
What follows are four roles you might not know Jones played. I love Darth Vader as much as the next sci-fi geek, but it’s not the only role I’ll remember him for. Check these out.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 
The Dirty Little Secret Of Reviews
I’m sure I’ve written on this topic before, but many years ago, and some people are new here. It’s an interesting topic to revisit in light of the current state of the reviewing community and the current TV/streaming and movie discussion. Let’s talk critics.
Full disclosure of course: I technically am one. I’m not a professional, but that’s because I don’t get paid for this. WordPress gets the ad revenue for free hosting, my Amazon Affiliate links were so unused that Amazon kicked me off, the Paypal never gets used, I haven’t sold anything through the Clutter For Sale section of my other site in years, and while Clip Studio at one point wanted me to post an affiliate link because I use it for my comic work, I wasn’t sure WordPress would let me after they made changes to the service. YouTube decided I wasn’t popular enough to stay monetized, and Maker Studios destroyed Blip so they could use the assets to look pretty for the johns at Disney to buy it. I do this to make myself a better storyteller and because I’ve gotten to do some cool things because of this site. So I am definitely not in this for the money…though if I did make money from this I could focus more on it.
So let’s talk about the ones that are.
In the 1980s there were review shows, or morning talk shows that would have a movie review segment. I remember when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, two movie reviewers for rival Chicago newspapers, had a show on PBS called Sneak Previews, where they would play movie clips and discuss the movie they saw. They got popular enough that they turned their show over to two other critics to start a syndicated series, Siskel & Ebert At The Movies, which underwent a few host changes when the two originals each passed away from different medical problems. This was before someone set up a bunch of tubes to create the internet, before YouTube existed, and before websites existed that only discussed entertainment. You had to get your news and reviews out of newspapers, magazines, and Entertainment Tonight.
We now live in the early decades of a new century. Any putz can start a website or host a video on YouTube. You’re reading the rambling of one such putz right now. Unlike me, many of them have gone on to be popular, and some other people don’t like it. Of course it’s about going after the popular spouters of opinions you disagree with. For example, around the time of this writing members of Nerdrotic’s “Friday Night Tights fellowship”, including Nerdrotic host and webmaster Gary Buecher and fellow FNT panelists like Ryan Kinnell and Jeremy Griggs of Geeks & Gamers, were reported to YouTube for violations of service that YouTube themselves did not find. The reason is their dislike of The Acolyte among other shows approved by the pro-“inclusion” crowd (actually the “everything for meeeeeeeeeee” crowd who hate something popular not catering to them) but disliked by the Star Wars and other franchises’ fanbases (which includes members of the same groups the crowd claims to speak for). Their reasoning is that it was the reviews of people of the “Fellowship” turning people away from the shows with their negative reviews and ruining the fun for those who enjoy the show.
However, what one needs to realize when it comes to these reviews is something many reviewers try to hide, many websites insist doesn’t happen, and no matter how much we who review things in article and videos try to work around it, is still looming there. We’re all biased as hell! For example, I will admit right now that I enjoy Friday Night Tights, but I don’t always agree with everybody there. The secret is they totally admit to what they are if you actually watch. Now you know my bias you can decide if you want to continue as I make my point. If not, that’s fine. Plenty of other articles, comics, and videos on the site for you, or find someone you enjoy. This is for the open-minded and the biased alike.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 12, 2024 in Uncategorized and tagged commentary, Reviews.
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